Danny Roberts, a star of “The Real World” on MTV, brought a sense of possibily to the pop culture landspe durg a ght time for gay reprentatn.
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A GAY IN FROM REALY TV’S EARLY YEARS MAK A HANT RETURN
Smh was out as gay while petg, but he had never discsed his genr inty wh his tribemat prr to beg outted by Varner (who is also gay). AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTDanny Roberts, a star of “The Real World” on MTV, brought a sense of possibily to the pop culture landspe durg a ght time for gay Newell for The New York TimGRAFTON, Vt.
But for a swath of gay elr lennials whose formative years unfold to an MTV soundtrack, his reappearance as a st member on a streamg return to “The Real World” on Paramount+ is likely to spark that old 2000, Mr. Roberts was somethg new pop culture: a gay sex symbol zapped to the basement rec rooms of teenagers who had never enuntered such a creature.
Gay people, at the time, were beg more visible on TV — thanks, large part, to earlier stallments of “The Real World” — but none had the wholomens and nfint sexualy that Mr. “Will & Grace, ” another s, broke some ground by chroniclg the relatnship between a gay man and his straight iend, but discerng viewers uldn’t help but notice that had about as much be as “I Love Lucy. ” In 2000, “Survivor, ” then s first season, livered an openly gay (and, often, openly nu) antihero Richard Hatch, who schemed his way to ln-dollar victory.